Work is finally beginning on the day care coming to the WCH Richards Center. St. Peters Church is putting in the
playground and Pioneer Construction will begin working on the basic plan, and alternate #1. Funds are still needed to complete alternates #2-#4.
The amount still needed to finish the construction is $120,000.00. Anyone wishing to donate to this project should mark their check "building fund" and
the money will be added to the project funds. For more information, to see the plans, look at the site or anything else related to this project contact
Virginia at 634-8499.
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Rather Lather Hygiene Clean (RLHC)
Melanie Rivkin
My name is Melanie Rivkin and I recently graduated from Cherry Hill (NJ) High School East. I am a participant of the Satell Teen Fellowship, a youth program for 21 teenagers based in the Philadelphia area to work on enhancement of leadership skills and opportunities for social activism. As part of my commitment project, I donate hygienic supplies through an organization I created as a part of my Bat Mitzvah project, Rather Lather Hygiene Clean (RLHC).
RLHC donates to those below or at the poverty line as well as people in crisis situations (Darfur, Katrina, etc).
I will be going to Binghamton University in the fall where I hope to further RLHC through the university's hillel!
Without the ability to afford products for personal hygiene, people are more prone to diseases, such as gastroenteritis, an inflammation of the stomach and the intestines, and tooth decay, one of the most dangerous illnesses for children in the world.
In recent years, RLHC has donated to Henry S. Jacobs Camp in Utica, Mississippi for the Katrina relief effort, Garfield Park Academy, a school for students from low-income families and no running water in their homes. The students are also overcoming mental and physiological issues to adapt into better, human beings through Youth Consultation Services (YCS) programming.
Most recently RLHC donated over 600 toiletries to the women's center in Voorhees.
RLHC Web site
Satell Teen Fellowship
WCH recently donated individual size bars of soap to the project - shipping was provided by an anonymous donor and sent Priority Mail through the USPS.
WCH receives donations of soap and over time accumulated a surplus. WCH is glad to assist this program and happy to find a place to donate surplus soaps.
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Homeless Vermonters Deserve Respect
By Morgan W. Brown
Opinion Section
June 25, 2008
Times Argus
Barre-Montpelier, Vermont
Among the many negative stereotypes — as if there were any of a
positive and affirming nature — concerning people who live homeless,
which probably is more deeply cynical as well as the one that does
some of the most prolonged damage, is the opinion that such persons
generally lack an articulate voice of their own and therefore cannot
be expected to speak intelligently, powerfully, effectively or
credibly enough for themselves.
Broad and sweeping generalizations like these provide convenient
rationalizations and lame excuses as to why one should not then expect
or allow people who are homeless to either speak or act intelligently,
powerfully, effectively or credibly on their own behalf.
The resulting mindset dictates that people who are living homeless are
most certainly not best able to advocate and take the lead either on
their own or on their peers' behalf.
In fact, it is frightening how many people there are who too often and
so easily believe this about themselves, as well.
When people who are homeless or formerly homeless speak up for
themselves or for their peers, they can find themselves being quickly
slapped down or simply blown off in various ways time and time again.
Sometimes when they do speak out, they can find themselves being
treated, regarded and portrayed as either the one and only, the hero
or, the over-comer type(s), as if what they are doing is not the norm
and therefore unique, or is an amazing and heroic accomplishment "for
someone who is homeless," or as if they are someone to be pitied,
patted on the head and, at best, maybe given a star to wear on their
forehead for accomplishing (or even attempting) something more or
better than was ever expected of them.
If the person persists in speaking up, however, they are often
ignored, belittled, punished, scorned, told they are being
inappropriate or said to be outspoken.
This in a nation prizing democracy, self-determination, independence
and freedom.
Ironically, it seems when either an individual or a group of people
become or just want to remain self-determining, they are somehow
expected to do it completely on their own, even against the most
impossible of odds (e.g., in isolation and with little or no resources
of their own).
Although not intended as such, if the tone or manner of the above
comes across as being offensive or abrasive, etc.: Imagine how it
comes across to people living homeless or who are formerly homeless
when they are treated like this, or even worse, in one form or another
on an ongoing basis by countless people, as well as a society that
would never stand for being treated in these ways themselves.
We can all do better and it would serve us all to do so.
Morgan W. Brown, who has lived homeless in many of its various forms
off and on over the years, lives in the Montpelier area.
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Homeless Female Vets Find A Haven
By SHERRI ACKERMAN
The Tampa Tribune
TAMPA - A half century ago, this two-story red brick building housed men returning from World War II.
This fall, 16 homeless female veterans - including some who served in Iraq - will move into the 100-year-old former boarding house as they work to become self-sufficient again.
"So there'll be soldiers here again," said Sara Romeo, executive director of Tampa Crossroads, the agency that will oversee the federal transitional housing program.
Women make up more than a quarter of the military and are becoming a growing demographic among the nation's homeless population.
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs estimates there are more than 194,000 homeless veterans on any given night nationwide; about 6,000 of them are women, said Peter Dougherty, the department's director of homeless veterans programs.
Traditionally, veterans programs have catered to men. As more women enlisted in the military, coed treatment facilities opened. It's only been in the past six to seven years, though, that programs began looking at women separately, Dougherty said.
Women's issues are different from men's, he said, which makes it more difficult to counsel women in a group setting. A high percentage of them have been sexually abused either before enlisting, while on active duty or after leaving the military.
The need for gender-specific programs - especially for women - has become "a high priority," he said. "They're still fairly rare."
Women To Get Housing, Counseling
Veterans Affairs is providing the bulk of funding for Tampa Crossroad's Athena Program, which will be the only one of its kind in the state, Romeo said. The name comes from the Greek Goddess of war, wisdom and art.
Homeless female veterans who were honorably discharged can enroll in the program for up to two years. They'll receive housing and board, counseling, and job assistance while they reacquaint themselves with living in a community.
"Usually we only get about six months to work with them," Romeo said.
The former state legislator estimates there are about 400 homeless veterans in Hillsborough and Pinellas counties.
Many come home with post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental health issues, Romeo said. They've lived for months, maybe years on alert for trigger bombs.
"They just can't go out and get a job and act like nothing happened," she said.
Female vets tend to have issues similar to other women involved in Tampa Crossroads programs. Some abuse alcohol or drugs. They have low self-esteem and usually have some kind of domestic violence or sexual abuse in their past, Romeo said.
The program strives to make them independent again.
Sixteen women will move into the building, which was moved from 18th Street in Ybor City north to 1301 E. Columbus Drive as part of the state Department of Transportation's historic mitigation project.
The project called for relocating and renovating 35 historic houses and structures to allow for the widening of Interstate 4 that began in 2000. Since then, the DOT has identified 29 more buildings that qualify for the project, making it the department's largest historic mitigation undertaking in the nation, consultant Elaine Illes said.
The former boarding house took the longest to move and was the most expensive to renovate.
"The department has over a million dollars in that building," Illes said.
Tampa Crossroads needs help now from the community to furnish the eight bedrooms, four bathrooms and two community rooms, along with the kitchen and two laundry rooms.
"We have 37 windows," Romeo said. "We need 37 sets of blinds."
Then there's silverware and plates for 16 people - not to mention towels, blankets and sheets. Someone suggested Romeo register for items at local department stores much like couples do for weddings.
On Aug. 2, TampaArtist .com, a nonprofit group made up of local artists, will host an art show at Romeo Gallery in Ybor City to help raise money for the program. Romeo plans a ribbon-cutting Aug. 19 featuring local dignitaries including Mayor Pam Iorio and U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor.
It's a project that's starting to get a lot of attention, Romeo said.
"If we have 400 homeless veterans now before the war ends, imagine how bad it's going to get."
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Homelessness is like......
Harmony Kieding
Homelessness is like trying to tread water out in the middle of the ocean at
the height of a storm with no land in sight and no rescue boat or helicopter
on its way.
How did you get out there? Well, maybe your house burned down. Maybe you
lived in a town which got destroyed by a hurricane and the poorly-maintained
levees broke. Something like that could happen. Maybe it already has.
Or maybe there was a tornado. Or maybe either you or someone close to you
got a bad illness, making it impossible to work. Maybe you lost your job
along with thousands of others. Maybe you went into bankruptcy and your home
went into foreclosure. Or maybe you were renting and working two different
jobs in order to pay it, and then the landlord raised the rent, forcing you
out with nowhere else to go.
Maybe you were a veteran, fighting for your country overseas and coming home
badly injured and traumatized with not enough help and not enough housing.
But anyway, there you are in the middle of the ocean... treading water,
exhausted, and watching the fins of sharks as they head towards you. And
each shark has a different name- Pneumonia, Malnutrition, Hunger,
Heat-stroke, Hypothermia .... Some of the sharks are teenagers with bats and
bricks, and from the look in their eyes they're coming to beat you up, set
you on fire, kill you- and you don't know what to do. But you know you want
to live.
Suddenly you see a boat heading towards you and you think "Alright! At last!
Someone to help!"
Unfortunately, when the boat draws closer you can see it's the Society
Police Boat. And it's come not with help, but with tasers and tickets and
fines.
Police Officer: "What are you doing out here? Don't you know it's all your fault? Lazy bum!
We don't want your kind here. No, don't try swimming over there, you'd be
illegal over there, too. I'm writing you out a ticket for illegally treading
water. And is that a life-jacket I see on you? Well, I'm confiscating it. No, I'm
not going to make restitution for that. Now just hand it over. What!!!
You're resisting me? I sure don't like your attitude. George, put the
handcuffs on him. Now see this? This is a taser."
And there you are... shocked and sinking.. in the middle of an ocean...
and that's what homelessness feels like to me...
Harmony
Homeless Civil Rights and Civil Liberties
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No Hud Funds For Housing
Big Plan For Eastside Homeless Hits
Bureaucratic Stumbling Block
Tan Vinh
Seattle Times Eastside Bureau
REDMOND The goal was ambitious: House some of the Eastside's neediest, provide them family counseling, even transportation for job hunting.
That's what four social-service agencies set out to do two years ago when they turned a parcel of former Coast Guard property in Redmond into temporary housing for the homeless.
But the grand plan has hit a snag.
A $160,000 federal grant that community leaders were banking on, money to pay for a counselor and provide transportation, was not awarded.
"We thought we were getting it," said Doreen Marchione, co-chairwoman of the Eastside Housing Association, a coalition of the four local agencies. "We are going to be scrambling to find money to operate."
Even without the grant, more than a dozen families will move into the remodeled Avondale Park transitional housing on Avondale Road Northeast in the coming months.
But because there is no money to hire a case manager, four houses intended for 10 young adults with troubled pasts likely will go to less risky tenants who need less support.
Still, the project remains one of the most ambitious attempts to address the Eastside's homeless problem, although the loss of the grant shows how difficult it is to find funding for affordable housing on the Eastside - in part because of the area's well-to-do image.
Back in 1996, Friends of Youth, the Seattle Indian Center, Catholic Community Services of King County, and the Multi Service Centers of North and East King County teamed up to take over the former Coast Guard property.
Half of the 10 acres was free under the McKinney Act, which allowed the federal government to give Redmond the surplus property so long as it was used for transitional housing, where residents can live up to 18 months. The city of Redmond purchased the rest for other housing projects.
The agencies had banked on getting a McKinney Homeless Assistance grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to cover startup costs. They were so confident that there was no contingency plan in case the application was rejected.
But the Eastside Housing Association was not among the 44 projects HUD approved in December.
Although the Eastside project was ranked 37th, HUD funded eight other programs ranked below it, including one ranked 74th out of the 76 programs listed.
"We were very disturbed that HUD did not honor the ranked order that we had established," said Janna Wilson, who helped organize the wish list for King County.
HUD officials said that after the first 36 projects, the others were so close in need that the difference came down to which was in a so-called enterprise zone, an economically deprived area targeted for revitalization. The Eastside is not a designated enterprise area.
But it has the homeless, Marchione notes.
Last year the Crisis Clinic Community Information Line in King County received more than 1,000 calls from the Eastside, averaging four a day, from homeless people seeking assistance. This year the average has gone up to six calls daily.
The Multi Service Centers turn away 12 homeless people requesting transitional housing for every one they accept, Marchione says. And the Eastside Domestic Violence Program turns away 13 people for every one it takes in for transitional housing.
Some relief is on the way - with the Multi Service Centers adding 20 housing units in Bellevue next year and the Eastside Domestic Violence Center adding a house in May - but the new units aren't coming fast enough, officials say.
The Eastside's real-estate market is too hot for nonprofit agencies to raise enough money to build enough shelters, affordable homes or transitional housing, Marchione says.
For instance, Habitat for Humanity of East King County has plenty of volunteers but not enough land, says Executive Director Dennis Garrity.
Youth Eastside Services, which helps immigrant families among others, refers the homeless to Seattle shelters and recommends that immigrants who can't afford rent increases in Bellevue move to Kent.
Outside Seattle, Eastside apartments are the most expensive in King County. Rent for a two-bedroom apartment last year averaged about $771, almost $100 higher than the county average.
The escalating rents have displaced many.
"East King County has been a tighter market proportionately than anywhere else in King County," said Art Sullivan, executive director of A Regional Coalition for Housing, a group working with the county and developers to provide affordable homes. "Its rent has been higher, and it has less-subsidized housing."
The real-estate boom is why the former Coast Guard site is considered a boon. Avondale Park may have up to 80 units within five to 10 years, Marchione says.
As originally envisioned, Avondale Park rents would be from $175 to $200 a month. Tenants would have on-site programs, including parenting classes and job-referral services. Also available would be transportation assistance, such as bus tokens for the unemployed to go on job hunts and child-care vouchers for those who find jobs.
How much of that will be possible now is unclear.
Hardest hit by the lack of funding will be Friends of Youth, which wanted to serve young adults ages 18 to 21 with criminal pasts or drug problems. Without funding for a case manager, the nonprofit organization may take a safer route, such as housing single mothers attending community college.
But HUD funding or not, the Avondale project will survive, Eastside Housing Association officials say.
Two families have moved in, and the rest may come in April, pending approval from the city.
"We made a commitment to be here," said Bob Rench, spokesman for Friends of Youth. "And we are going to try to do that."
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L.A. Seeing More People Living Out of Their Cars
BY CHRISTINA HOAG, AP
LOS ANGELES (Map, News) - Having lost her job and her three-bedroom house, Darlene Knoll has joined the legions of downwardly mobile who are four wheels away from homelessness.
She is living out of her shabby 1978 RV, and every night she has to look for a place to park where she won't get hassled by the cops or insulted by residents.
"I'm not a piece of trash," the former home health-care aide said as she stroked one of five dogs in her cramped quarters parked in the waterfront community of Marina del Rey.
Amid the foreclosure crisis and the shaky economy, some California cities are seeing an increase in the number of people living out of their cars, vans or RVs.
Acting on complaints from homeowners, the Los Angeles City Council got tough earlier this year by forbidding nearly all overnight parking in residential neighborhoods such as South Brentwood.
But some people are just crowding into other parts of the city, including the seaside community of Venice, where dozens of rusty, dilapidated campers can be seen lined up outside neat single-family homes. The stench of urine emanates from a few of the vehicles, and some residents say they have seen human waste left behind.
"They're nasty and gnarly," said Venice resident Jeff Scharlin. "We've heard about drug dealing and prostitution in them. I've never seen it, but visually they're a blight and they take up parking space."
In Los Angeles, as in many other cities, it is illegal to live in vehicles on public streets. But the law is not easy to enforce. Police have to enter a vehicle to find signs that people are living there, such as cooking or sleeping, and occupants often refuse to answer when cops knock.
An easier way is to restrict overnight parking. In L.A., a first offense carries a $50 fine, and subsequent violations can cost as much as $100.
Parking-enforcement officers often give vehicle owners a warning and tell them to move on before issuing a ticket, and that usually solves the problem, said Alan Willis, a city transportation engineer. But other cities in the area are not as lenient.
"I had my motor home towed in Culver City. It cost me $500 to get it out," said Desiri Hawkins, who lives in a small RV in Venice. "I got ticketed in Santa Monica and had to go to court."
Tourist states with temperate climates, such as California and Florida, have long been magnets for the homeless. Los Angeles is the nation's homelessness capital, with an estimated 73,000 people on the streets. A survey of 3,230 homeless people last year in Los Angeles County found nearly 7 percent living in vehicles, according to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority.
"It's trending toward an increase," said Michael Stoops, acting executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless. "People would rather live in a vehicle than wind up in a shelter, and you can't stay on a friend's couch forever."
People living out of their cars or campers tend to be more well-off than the homeless on the street. They usually have jobs or disability checks that enable them to maintain an old camper but do not allow them to afford rent.
"For more working-class and lower-middle-class people, the car is the first stop of being homeless, and sometimes it turns out to be a long stop," said Gary Blasi, a University of California, Los Angeles, law professor and activist on homeless issues.
Some Venice residents are clamoring for overnight parking restrictions. But parking limits in oceanfront neighborhoods are problematic because the California Coastal Commission requires communities to accommodate surfers, fishermen and other early-morning beachgoers.
"The complaints are getting louder and louder," said Los Angeles City Councilman Bill Rosendahl.
For years, some cities such as Santa Barbara, Calif., and Eugene, Ore., have accommodated people who live out of their vehicles. Activists in Venice are looking at some of those ideas. Santa Barbara, for example, allows vehicles to stay from 7 p.m to 7 a.m. in church and city parking lots.
Knoll said she can barely afford to drive around with the rising price of gasoline eating away at the $950 monthly disability check she receives because of mental illness.
She said she is also sick of police waking her up in the wee hours by pounding on her vehicle with their nightsticks, and she is tired of fighting with residents who call her "lowlife scum" and hurl other insults.
"We need somewhere we can have a safe haven, where we won't be harassed," Knoll said as the wind from a passing car rocked her RV. "I never thought I'd be living like this, but I'm stuck. This is it for me."
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Number of Homeless Over Age 50 Rising, Study Finds
Increase spurs agencies to look at new strategies
By Lolly Bowean
Chicago Tribune
For most of his life, John Stovall remodeled houses, supported his wife and raised five children on the West Side.
But after decades of stability, Stovall began struggling with alcoholism, lost his job and his family and wound up homeless at 61.
"It's a tragedy to lose where you are at," he said. "You know you are not going to have a place to stay. You don't know where your next meal will come from."
Stovall's story is like that of hundreds of older residents in the Chicago region who end up homeless because they are too old and ill-equipped to find stable work and too young to qualify for senior citizens benefits, experts say.
The number of homeless people over 50 is steadily increasing and causing new challenges for agencies that serve the population, according to a recently released report.
From 2001 to 2006 there was a 26 percent increase in older residents seeking help from social agencies in the Chicago region, the report said.
The study, conducted by the Chicago Alliance to End Homelessness with Loyola University's Center for Urban Research and Learning, offers a glimpse at a community of people who can easily become chronically homeless because of the scarce resources available to them.
"There is a great divide between the homeless world and the world of aging," said Nancy Radner, chief executive officer of the alliance. "There are a lot of things going on in the world of aging that could help the homeless. One goal is to bring these two worlds together."
The study came after officials in agencies that serve the poor and homeless began reporting that more older people were seeking help, Radner said.
For nine months, officials looked at the issue and learned that 39 percent of people who end up homeless after they turn 50 said that they lost their job and couldn't find another and that they struggled with alcoholism. In addition, many end up homeless after an accident or an acute illness puts them out of work.
Though there are agencies that help people find work and secure housing, officials reported that they struggled to assist the older age group, Radner said. Some in that group have special medical needs, their skills are dated and they are not welcomed back into the workforce. They don't qualify for much aid, don't have retirement savings and often have nowhere to turn.
"A majority of these people are homeless for the first time in their 40s. This was a huge surprise to us," Radner said.
"For a number of these folks, they were, as a lot of people are in Chicago and elsewhere, precariously housed and employed to begin with. They worked jobs that didn't necessarily pay a living wage.
"What happens is that as they age, there is one thing that pushes them over the edge into homelessness."
Although the study aims to shed light on Chicago's aging homeless population, some say that concern about older, troubled residents slipping into homelessness is not new.
The average homeless person loses stability in midlife, said Charles Hoch, a professor of urban planning at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
The increased population of homeless people over 50 also could reflect the overall increased population of people in that age range, he said.
"You expect the number to increase," he said. "There are a lot of people in that age cohort—and there is economic hardship—then there are more people that will experience the problem."
Hoch said the report's findings should not be dismissed but must be viewed in context.
"There are a lot of people who are poor, and they are finding some type of arrangement to keep shelter. When a crisis happens, if they have other problems, the most notable ones being addiction and medical disabilities, then those effects are even more intense."
Brenda Formsett found herself floating among friends' houses and on the streets after she was evicted in 1999.
Her husband died after 22 years of marriage, and she had no way to pay the bills or make ends meet. Depressed and still mourning, she started abusing drugs. She was 49.
"All my life I was a housewife and a mother," she said. "No one could have ever told me that I'd end up with no home, no clothes, nothing. My husband was a Chicago Firefighter for 17 years and for me to wind up homeless . . ."
With no work experience, Formsett said she couldn't find a job. Now, she is in subsidized housing and depends on government assistance for food. It works for now, she said, but she doesn't know what she's going to do for the long term.
"You get to a certain age, if you haven't been stable when you were young, you can lose your job or anything can happen and you can wind up homeless," she said.
For Stovall, alcoholism pushed him over, he said. He's 69 and after years of sleeping on the streets, he moved into senior housing about a month ago because of assistance from an agency.
"I'm going grocery shopping. I've got a few pieces of furniture. I've got towels, stove, a fridge," he said. "I sit here and admire my house. It's been such a long time."
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President Signs Bill into Law to Create a National Housing Trust Fund
WASHINGTON, DC - Today (July 30, 2008), President George W. Bush signed into law a bill to create a national Housing Trust Fund, the first new federal rental housing production to specifically help the lowest income households in the U.S. enacted since 1974. The Housing Trust Fund is one of the many provisions of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 that the President signed early this morning.
The Housing Trust Fund’s most important features are:
- It is a permanent program with a dedicated source of funding.
- At least 90% of the funds must be used for the production, preservation, rehabilitation, or operation of rental housing. Up to 10% can be used for the following homeownership activities for first-time homebuyers: production, preservation, and rehabilitation; down payment assistance, closing cost assistance, and assistance for interest rate buy-downs.
- At least 75% of the funds for rental housing must benefit extremely low income (30% of area median income or less) households and all funds must benefit very low income households (50% of area median income or less).
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are required to make annual contributions to the Housing Trust Fund, which will be administered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). HUD will make grants to states, which will allocate funds to qualified organizations and agencies to build and operate rental housing that is affordable to people employed in the low wage work force and to the lowest income elderly and disabled people in our country.
The amount in the Housing Trust Fund had it been fully implemented in 2008 is estimated to be about $300 million. This amount is expected to grow over time. The bill also allows Congress to “transfer, appropriate, or credit” other funds to the Housing Trust Fund.
“Today marks the return of the Federal government to the business of supporting the production of rental homes for families whose incomes are too low to afford to rent decent homes in today’s housing market. There are 9 million extremely low income renter households in the U.S. and only 6.2 million homes renting at prices they can afford. This is a longstanding crisis that has been ignored by federal policy makers for too long. The enactment of the Housing Trust Fund offers these families hope for more stable homes and healthier, more productive lives,” said Sheila Crowley, President of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, which leads the National Housing Trust Fund campaign.
“The National Housing Trust Fund campaign is deeply grateful to Representatives Barney Frank (D-MA) and Maxine Waters (D-CA), and Senators Christopher Dodd (D-CT) and Jack Reed (D-RI) for their leadership in getting the Housing Trust Fund passed,” said Crowley. “Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and Bernie Sanders (D-VT) also must be congratulated for being early and committed champions to this cause.”
The National Housing Trust Fund campaign has been endorsed by more than 6,000 organizations and state and local elected officials. For more information, go to www.nhtf.org.
The National Low Income Housing Coalition is a membership organization dedicated solely to ending America’s affordable housing crisis. NLIHC educates, organize and advocates to ensure decent, affordable housing within healthy neighborhoods for everyone.
The National Low Income Housing Coalition recognizes journalists who do an exemplary coverage of the affordable housing crisis. For more information, go to www.nlihc.org/cndma.
©2008 National Low Income Housing Coalition
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![[VolunteerMatch - Where Volunteering Begins.]](http://www.volunteermatch.org/images/2.0/new_logo.gif){kind=logo}
Work Begins on the Day Care at the WCH Richards Center